Individual Learning Plans

Hey Friends!

This year my role is a Support teacher so it means I am that person who helps you write those dreaded Individual Learning Plans for your students who need a differentiated approach to the curriculum.

I know a lot of teachers see Learning Plans as extra work and initially they can be but I want to help you see this as a way to make your job easier!  I already hear you groaning but trust me this will be painless.

So lets start with what they are called, I asked some of my followers on my FB page what they call Learning Plans in their school and this was some of the responses

• IEP's Individual Education Plan
• PLP's Personalised Learning Plan
• ILP's Individual Learning Plan
• PLASP Personalised Learning and Support Plan
• ICP's Individual Curriculum Plan

Whatever they are called they all pretty much have the same function.  They are there to make sure the information about a particular learner informs the teaching and learning for that student.  These learning plans should be created in conjunction with a Support Staff, parents and Classroom Teacher, this way you will get the most relevant information and all stakeholders are aware of what will be happening for that learner in the classroom.

So what should an effective Learning Plan include?

• Student information including name, age, grade level, teacher
• Diagnosis information if relevant 
• Types of Professional assessments that have been done including psychologist, speech therapist, OT etc
• Student strengths and interests
• Information about sensory issues, personal assistance needed ie toileting, transition assistance, social management, communication
• Strategies and adjustments for the above information
• Curriculum outcomes and goals
• Personal and Social outcomes and goals
• Evidence to show the progression toward achieving the outcomes and goals

Phew!  Seems like a pretty extensive list but believe me when I say this is all relevant and will make your life and the students life easier.  When you have this at hand you can easily see what needs differentiation and what doesn't. Let's face it though most student who have a Learning Plan need it to access the curriculum in a way that needs adjustments and the heaviest subject areas are English and Mathematics so most Learning Plans I have seen usually include an English and Maths Outcome.

Most schools have a preferred template for you to use so if you don't have access to one find out from you admin staff if there is one for school use.  If not you can download this free one here or by clicking on the pic below.  This is a Word document so it is completely editable for you to add your school logo and anything else you need.

Managing a Split class Part 2....

Yesterday I posted about how I manage a split or composite class, if you missed that post you can read it here.
Today I wanted to talk about how I plan for that split class.  Over the years I have had many composites up to Grade 3 and over the years I have worked in different states with different curriculums, so when you plan you really have to have a good knowledge of your curriculum and where your class fits in.  In NSW the curriculum is organised by Stages as follows
Early Stage 1 (Kinder)
Stage 1 (Yr 1, 2)
Stage 2 (Yr 3, 4)
Stage 3 (Yr 5, 6)

So if you have a 1/2 class planning is quite easy because you only have to look at the outcomes and indicators for that Stage. However, if you have to cross the Stages eg Yr 2/3 it becomes a bit tricky because you have to look at outcomes and indicators from 2 Stages.

Keeping this in mind I plan both seperatly and as a whole group.  I have included a copy of my term overview, apologies for the plainess of it.

You can see here that I have outlined the Outcomes and Indicators for BOTH stages.  Now I will show you a classroom term plan for both Year levels

(This is really plain, I have prettied my planning up so much more now!)

This plan is very broad in its detail and from this term overview I will fine tune and plan my week in more detail.  This does not show my reading groups plan which is separate to this and works on ability groups rather than Year levels.  
I think this can show you that even though you have to cover a larger amount of content alot of it is broad enough to cover two levels.  In this plan it shows that my whole class were working on Narratives, now the structure of a Narrative does not change, but my expectations for what each student produces is where the differentiation is.  I use a Rubric for both year levels to show this.  Unfortunately I couldn't find those Rubrics to show you but there are many available or you could make your own.  You can see that my spelling rule was the same for both Year levels however my spelling lists were where the differentiation occurred.  The only place that was completely different for the Year levels was in handwriting, this was because in Year 3 students learn to join letters and write in cursive, while students in Year 2 are still printing.  However my Year 2 students often picked up on the cursive early.

I hope this has helped some people who are going into teaching a composite class, I am more than happy to share more of my ideas in the future on the joys of teaching a composite class.  Please leave a comment
to share your ideas as well.


 

Managing a split class.

Hi friends!  I had a lovely comment left from a follower asking me to write a post about how I manage learning and teaching in a split or composite class.
Now to be honest I have never really thought about it as I have only ever taught a straight class twice in my teaching career.  Following is a list of the split classes I have taught

* Yr 1/2/3 (for 3 yrs)
* Pre-school/1/2/3  (1 Yr)
* Prep/1 (3 yrs)
* Yr 1/2 (3yr)
* Yr 2/3 (2 yrs)

So how do I manage a class with so many different levels, the short answer is the same as a class that is a straight year level.
When you think about it no matter what class you have you are likely to have to cater for abilities that span 2 or 3 different yr levels, this can be because of special needs, attendance, developmental delays the list could be endless.  Essentially you will most likely work in groups, I found for reading and writing workshops ability groups were the best type of groupings and of course your focus for each group will be different.  Last year I used Daily 5 and CAFE for the first time in my class and I found the organising tips from the 2 Sisters invaluable.  I used to think that you needed to spend an equal amount of time with each group and I used to feel guilty if I didn't see the top group for as long or as often as my lower ability students, but those kiddos who are able to fly need to be allowed to fly.  I'm not saying to not supervise them but let them become more independent and manage their own learning.  They may be able to do a research project to enhance their reading or writing while your lower group may still be working on phonics, which group do you think really needs most of your time?  Also it is vital to record your sessions with your groups, either with anecdotal notes, actual recordings or jotting down goals for each group so that you can track progress.

When I timetable my groups I always made sure we started with the whole group to focus on a concept, for example with spelling we would have a focus rule  for the week eg, 'ea' words and as a whole group we would brainstorm words that belonged to that rule but then students were sent back to their desks to focus on either an individual spelling list or a group spelling list depending on where they were at and I would be able to work with small groups.  I always made sure we had the same focus if I could swing it, (it didn't always happen).

The other thing I really used quite a bit in my room was a Teacher Aide or Assistant.  Now I know we aren't all lucky to have one or the TA may be in your room to help a specific student so you need to be very creative on how you group particular students, perhaps your Special Needs student needs support with the same concepts as another group that could benefit from TA time.  If you don't have a TA, try to recruit some reliable parents to come and read with your students or to help with a Maths group.

Well this is a topic that I could ramble on with all day, and I don't want this post to become exhaustive so I am going to pick up again tomorrow with how I plan on paper to make sure I am covering the Curriculum for both levels.

I am sure my lovely follower would love to hear from other teachers how they manage teaching and learning in a composite class so feel free to leave your ideas in the comments below.

For all my Aussie friends I hope you enjoy your first week back at school and for all those affected by the floods and weather, I hope you are safe.  My thoughts are with you and yours.

Back to School Panic

Why is it that no matter how much work you put in on the holidays I never seem to feel organised the day before the students come back to school?  We have such a busy term 3 at school and I already feel overwhelmed!  Dancing, swimming, gymnastics, excursions (2 of!), Education Week, Book Week oh and we also have to fit in all our other learning as well.
I sometimes feel like we have such a crowded curriculum and although we often see the media headlines that scream about low literacy and numeracy levels across our country and that schools should be going "back to basics", this sometimes seems so difficult to navigate.
I like many other educators know that literacy is the foundation of all other subject areas and I try to spend as much time on this as I can during each school day.  I know that it is important for children to get a well rounded education but it seems we are taking on so much more that eats away into our time teaching fundamental skills.  I often feel like I am having to be very creative with my timetable to fit in all that we have to cover and then something new gets thrown in like a visit from the Little Athletics or Auskick or the Rugby League (all Aussie football) and that is going to take up an ENTIRE morning when I would prefer my students to be reading, writing and getting "back to basics."
Over the last thirteen years I have been teaching I have seen a huge increase in the amount of "programs" that have been introduced to classrooms including sex education, cyber safety, dog safety, pet responsibility among others.  Some of these are more in the realm of family responsibility in my opinion.  Am I being too critical?  I often feel I am required more and more to be a parent rather than being a teacher.  At the end of the day I want to be able to say that I gave each of my students the ability to read, write, problem solve and to use numbers in a practical way as a minimum, but I am more often feeling that this is being compromised.
Does anyone else feel this way?
Well my goodness that was a rant wasn't it!  But I do feel a little calmer if not organised and ready.